August 27, 2024 • 22 mins
The year’s biggest Indian hit, Kalki 2898 AD, is just as irredeemable as Prabhas’ other recent films.
But unlike those movies, this one barely features Prabhas at all and drags on for three hours without offering a single character you can latch on to. We talk about the film’s poor construction, subpar world-building, and superficial writing.
We also discuss its shameless sequel-bait of a climax and wonder why people weren’t up in arms about being short-changed by writer-director Nag Ashwin.
—
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:16):
Hi I'm. And I'm Rohana welcome.
To the long take. This week we're discussing the
biggest Indian movie out this year, apparently called Heat
289080, with stars Prabhas and Kamal Hassan, if you can
recognize him, Deepika Padukone and a bunch of other people who
show up for like 2 minutes here there.
It's certain like the year, as the title you can says.
(00:36):
And it's like a sci-fi, cyberpunk, romantic drama,
comedy. I know Walters, it's everything
in one. But somehow still can't do the
basics, which is like what? Construct a scene sometimes on
what is happening. Yeah.
It's everything except good. It's everything and nothing.
Yeah, it's I was kind of shockedat how bad this was because I
(00:57):
mean, not for any other reason, but like no, it didn't feel like
the discourse around it was angry, right?
Like it didn't, I didn't, it didn't like seep through to me,
but not. Who was that guy who made that
Ram movie or whatever like with some?
What's wrong? Adi Purush?
Yeah. Yeah.
Was he the same guy? Yeah.
That was like was actively angered people, right?
(01:20):
That would actively angered people, but not because it was a
bad movie. It was mainly like just
religious folks were like actually dialogue this.
Oh yeah, yeah, it wasn't like what the.
Thinking of it right because I saw like 2 1/2 minutes of it.
I was like, did they make it in like I like Windows movie Maker?
Yeah, no. So that movie was mainly like,
how could you, like, mess with the Ramayan, right.
(01:40):
Why do you have, like, death heaters in it?
All that stuff, You know, it's just like creative choices.
Sure. It's.
I didn't really get a sense of how bad this was going to be,
even though we've been prepared for years now on what to expect
from these people about like, yeah, so.
They fooled me because, you know, like coming into it effect
most earned of this year, like critics also like, you know,
(02:02):
like I think has a good enough rating on ultimates or whatever.
I was like maybe it's like even from like even global critics.
I'm like, yeah, this is like maximalistic mathematics.
I'm like OK. Like, sure, yeah, I was
expecting like, sure, like RRR we didn't like, but sure, I can
understand why people like fine,whatever, but it's it's this
barely even qualifies as a movie.
Exactly, not so much of it. Like you know that.
(02:23):
That's why I brought up the scene construction thing.
I was like, how can they not even understand that?
You know, like certain shot has to follow a certain shot, right?
This is like basic building blocks of film making, right?
Like this, you do the shot, thishas to be the next shot and then
you can do the third shot, the fourth shot.
But this movie just like does first shot and then fourth shot.
I'm like beach, you know? People just go from A to B
without like any idea of ye kaise Hua and suddenly we are in
(02:46):
like a comedy now but last sceneto drama tha and romance star
but oski Pele wala to matlab dystopian thriller.
How have we reached in the span of three minutes to like broad
comedy where the person has likewhipping while beating people
up? Why is he beating people up?
You know who is his sidekick? Why does he have three
sidekicks? How did he get here?
(03:06):
Why did he betray his adopted guardian?
That's not explained. It's it's just a series of like
baffling head scratching decisions.
Like it's a storytelling wise. So it's a mess.
Yeah, I like eventually you findout like two hours and like,
wait, why is this even the protagonist, right?
Because it's not like he has a purpose in the story for like 2
hours. It's just like bumbling around.
(03:26):
He's like, oh I need money, I can't survive, I need money, I
can't survive. And then he just like, is there
more to your story at this point?
It's kind of shocking, right? Because the movie is 3 hours
long and it's, you're right, there is no protagonist, right?
It's not that Prabhas is not theprotagonist.
He's not, but it's not like Bakidolog hair and we've been sold
the movie as Oprah has key movie.
No, no, no, there is no protagonist in this film.
(03:47):
You know it's just it expects you to watch for three hours
with nothing to offer you got. There's no not a single version
that you can latch onto. Because it's like crazy like
like you, you're trying to like,you're not even saying he was
making a movie. You're like, I'm going to launch
for cinematic universe, which islike balls, but do the basics of
making a good movie first. I'd like at least like Marvel,
maybe whatever it is today, but they had the brains to be like
(04:09):
OK, let's just make a good movie.
Iron Man, if he make it good, maybe people will want more.
More even the worst Marvel movieand now we have complained, you
know, sequel beta. What I had is that the
shoehorning and 15 characters that would be seen in later this
thing, whatever, you know, even the worst Marvel movie to have
done that is still a movie. It's a bad movie, but it's a
(04:30):
movie. This one is half a movie.
It ends abruptly. It doesn't have a protagonist.
It expects you to just keep watching, and there's no
emotional payoff. Why?
Like why? Why is supposed to like relate?
What am I supposed to like, see their struggles, whatever
they're feeling, whatever, striving towards nothing.
There is like no one to like latch.
Onto right. In fact, on a human level, you
will probably latch onto DeepikaPadukone because it's very
(04:52):
obvious that she's being kind ofkept prisoner, going to be
experimented on bad things. We don't want bad things to
happen to a seemingly innocent person.
Though on a very basic level, you're like, I don't want, I
want her to escape, right? That's it.
With Amitabh Bachchan's character.
He's since he's the first personwe kind of beat in this film,
and he takes it upon himself to save Deepika Padukone.
(05:15):
Both those people I'm with on a relative scale.
Prabhas is actively the villain for because he's challenging
those two. He's challenging.
You you're trying to set this upguy as a protagonist.
You like do this like bounty on turn.
Like who like was living on the fringes, like copied from like
100 different horror movies. Like, yeah, he'll have a golden
part of gold or whatever eventually, but I'm just like,
(05:36):
he is actively against everyone else.
And I thought like and where he wakes up with the weapon he is
himself. No that just like he's someone
else and then he forgets that person in like 2 seconds.
And I'm like, oh, great, so you're always going to be
annoying. Yeah, yeah, yeah, no.
So I was briefly, I was like, OK, so I saw this coming,
obviously that he's going to have a change of heart.
But it's not even a change of heart, right?
(05:57):
It's not. He's not.
It's just breathe washing like that.
That weapon takes over his personality temporarily and then
that weapon leaves his hand. He's back to being himself.
I'm like great, going to deal with this.
Looking great. So from however much we've been
told of him, it could have, it could just as easily be a
mistake, right? He just happened to be in the
weapons vicinity. It could have been anyone.
So the movie itself is not giving you enough to be like,
(06:20):
but there is more to this person, right?
Beyond like he's even to attracta weapon.
It's not even like Captain America attracts like the hammer
or whatever, you know, because you know, Captain America is a
nice person. Exactly.
You're only for like 9 or 10 movies by that point, right?
This guy's like he's like a Sun King around the entire time.
Just like lying around his car making like the saddest jokes
ever and lying on the ground andit was like, you think you are
(06:43):
star not, but you're so far fromStar.
Not even a parody of the Scatterat this point.
Yeah, I don't know where to begin.
That is, I mean, we've already begun, but like, let's like
focus on scenes and figure out what they were trying to do,
right? Obviously, there's a lot of
nonsense that can just be like edited out, especially for like
(07:03):
the first hour and a half. I feel like he was just like,
whatever. And there is a villain, but
there's also a henchman. Is is the henchman supposed to
be menacing? Not really because he's played
by like a dude who looks like anuncle that he would notice on
this. I was like, like the terrible
casting. How can you think that Sasoda
chatter? Aziz, he's going to play like
(07:23):
some like evil, like, you know, like you.
He's not Bill Sasod. It's not working.
I'm not feeling it. He he's not even playing Ektos
Kanam Manas. I'm not threatened by a dude
called Manas whatever, but like he's not even playing him
interestingly, right. It's not like, Oh, you look like
you look innocent, but then Anders say you're like this
(07:44):
frustrated middle manager, right?
Like I can't do anything. But it's like that person from
Deadpool and Wolverine, right, Tom?
But it's not even that. He's just like a dude.
She's there are no layers to hisYeah, I.
Thought like he has some like bigger picture plan that you
know, I will usurp the supreme eventually.
No, that is some the other guy'splan, like who just died.
He's not even like subservient to a believable degree.
(08:07):
Like, it doesn't even feel like,oh, but I will do anything for
like, whatever the Andy Serkis looking.
Yeah. Last Jedi.
Basically, but. I'm not believing a single
person in this movie like Deepika Padukone is like is like
a damsel in distress and like it's not like, oh, but we'll
subvert expected. No, she is literally a damsel in
(08:27):
she needs to be rescued by not one, not two, but three people.
And then you have the audacity to frame her as Khaleesi without
like it's just empty kind of iconography, right?
Because. Which is basically the tagline
of the movie MDI. Kuch Kyani helps me, you know,
she it's not very difficult to be like, oh, but we'll write
(08:49):
you. We'll, we'll make this character
a little stronger than, you know, Nope.
Anybody. Because who doesn't really care
about female character, right? Because Particle is the most
like with the screen time. But as users noted, she's
entirely useless, and the other two are like treated even worse,
like they appear like. 5 minutesand now Ben shows for like to
make jokes and die huh? Which I was even thinking, I was
(09:10):
thinking like in terms of like, say billing like Disha Patani
and like, we're not talking about this movie.
Why are they in this movie? Why did they sign up?
Yeah, I guess paycheck maybe. What paycheck did they get for 5
minutes? Much love.
I don't know. Nearly.
He was convincing enough becausetheir roles are like so bad.
Like what? The characters don't need to
exist. It's not like Roxy shows up at
(09:30):
the end and, you know, play somepart in the finale.
No, he just disappears from the movie Acha.
So now my interesting that you mentioned that Disha Partney
character because she appears inthe movie as if acha in Kapo
history which fine you know I'llbuy that.
But then suddenly that is the moment where Prabhas chooses to
declare that uska pura objectivein life is to get to that.
(09:52):
Complex. Complex, right?
And there is no other like motivation to his character.
He's just like which is a complex Jana hai.
There is. Two hours, he's just like
complex, complex, complex even actually where two hours even
three are these complex complex?It's not.
And then fine, they somehow and she's like, fine, I'll take you
(10:15):
with me. And that happens very easily for
some reason. If it was that easy, why isn't
everybody doing it in? The complex, yeah.
Yeah, if everybody can just go to the complex, why isn't
everybody is going to the complex?
Because it didn't, it didn't feel like it was difficult for
Prabhas to go. And that was his major objective
in life, the one and only objective in life.
Karni yatuni, bro, You managed to get to the complex and then
Vahba Jakiru danced. Yeah, What?
(10:36):
It's just. It feels like the entire movie's
purpose was like written by the producer.
He's like hum complex Mein naj gana ka scene setup karna.
It's not like you get to the complex and suddenly you're hit
by Oh, but it was all a lie, right?
It's. Something, you know, it's
something because it was something, right, that she
reaches and you're like, Oh my God, this is a tragedy.
(10:57):
Yeah, exactly. So there is no like interesting
sci-fi concepts also came out ofeven the privileged people are
living under the thumb of whatever supreme ruler Yaskin,
right? There is no like complex ideas
at play here. No, literally, which is how I
guess poor people imagine rich people to be.
Like how the party got the Protect, Yeah, that is like.
(11:20):
A party, every shot made. Like literally, Deepika Barani
showed up in one shot. He takes her off the boat, she's
wearing white. They step into the party, Khan
car. She's wearing like some golden
thing. I'm like.
When did this happen even? He's dressed like in a trench
coat or something. Yeah, it's.
Like that in the middle of a shot while changing the costume.
Like but where you came from, like the poverty you came from
that you know, like other. You just get a slum with like
(11:43):
your uniforms and suddenly you have like access to like a walk
in wardrobe now. Which raises so many questions.
If you have access to like if you can just reach the complex,
if you have access to clothes, if you can just get crash a
party without being stopped, is the complex really that elusive
or whatever? Or is it just like anybody can?
It's just so stupid. So, I mean, every scene you can
(12:05):
just pick a part like this. Yeah.
Yeah. But suddenly, like Tota comes
and tells, like fortune teller Tota comes.
You know, forgot that existed. Yeah, yeah.
And the exact moment where Prabhas is sitting and being
like, I will go to the complex one day and then this fortune to
the tota comes mechanical. There's no interesting like the
the creature designs are like boring.
(12:25):
There's no like visual inventiveness.
The. World building is so boring,
right? Because in the initially when
they start setting up this worldand they go from mob and start
to like €6000, I'm like, OK, something promising.
And I put Hoga. They show you like Kashi.
Is this like, you know, dystopian city, like first and
last city. I'm like, OK, it's going to be
like, you know, something dirty,grimy.
Like I'd see like people like with their, I'm thinking like a
rogue one, like Jeddah, you know, no.
(12:47):
And then I get like an empty town, ghost town.
There's no one else except thesepeople.
But even like you mentioned, Rogue One, like the Jeddah,
right, It's very clearly modelled on like a Middle
Eastern city, which has its own internal like religious order
and stuff, right? Yeah.
What is? It's literally Kashi.
Isn't it supposed to be like like somewhat associated with
some religion? I'm saying you don't even have
(13:09):
to be like hi to Hinduism, what?Give me something.
No, how has how has the religionevolved in like 1000 years?
You know, do people even believein it anymore?
Or is it just like complex? Is God now What has happened?
Why set it in? Have people forgotten the idea
of gods? Nobody raises those questions,
right? And this is inspired by I.
Think there's no one exists to raise those questions?
(13:30):
The world is like so empty, likewhen the chase sequences are
happening, it's just the people who are being chased and the
people who are chasing them. There are no citizens in the
city. The problem is that if you if
you were to shave off like an hour of the first half, right,
and the second act is that Shambhala stuff, and then you
organically move into a third act, that's a movie.
Yeah, but right now we have the advent of nothing.
(13:51):
We have one hour of build up which just ends.
In the middle of it, let's just feed them literally like this
card the Avishmi. It literally feels like card
here. Like they shot it, but we can't
show it to you because we decided it's part.
It's just part for no other reason.
Because yeah. It's like new or not like how we
just decided to endure. Which is why I was so annoyed
by. Also, what should we I can't
(14:13):
compare? It is that, I mean, yeah,
obviously this is that's the problem, right?
Because we discussed that this is not even a movie.
Like if you don't know how to build or see what shots are what
sort of like basic, like our wayto place the camera, how to
frame this, we had to edit like wait to cut.
If he's in a music video sometime, like he's doing things
to his car and I'm like, can youplay?
Did this give me this established shot, Then you give
(14:35):
me a wide shot, then you give mea close up, then you give me
again a wide shot. I'm like, wait, what just
happened? No, but we've watched that.
No, no, I think that people justliterally too terrified to shoot
him in a way that isn't already done before.
I can't understand also how he'sOK by getting mocked so badly,
(14:56):
right? Because he has to know, right?
His entry scene is the first scene imaginable.
I'm not sure. Or does he not?
If he knew it wouldn't be this, it would be something else
which. He shows up like in the worst
scene possible. I'm just like, you realize we're
laughing at you, We're not laughing with you, right?
No, I don't think that's happening.
If for even a second he felt like he was being marked, that
(15:17):
scene would not exist. They keep mentioning like a
rebel fans rebel Hairy, which isall like, Oh yeah.
It's can't stand it like this. The the I was like, don't, don't
do meta dialogue with me. Like your scene is so garbage
right now. Like I'm like, OK, and I why is
he even there? People are standing around like,
yeah, at that point, the movie is not about Bharava.
It's like about Prabhas. He's lying on the ground.
(15:37):
Everyone's a fan of the guy on the ground, not your character.
No, but then Rajamouli shows up and then.
Ramgopal Varma shows. Up Ram Kapali Varma shows up,
Rajamouli shows up and for no other reason is to be like drive
around like with him and be likemake Bahubali references and
then just drive away. Yeah, for what just happened.
(15:58):
Like who is this movie for? Are you making some like inside
joke references to like you showit to the Delta community?
Like how many? No, I got to my Dal Nabi hiraja
Moniko. Right, Daldo, nobody's stopping
you. But like, come up with a better
scene. Except like, oh, but he's
literally show horned in and then he leaves.
He has no purpose in that scene.They're literally in a car
chase. How did he find out?
(16:19):
Yeah. And, and the chase is so like
damn annoying. Like if you're gonna copy from a
movie, you have to like live up to at least like 20% of it,
right? Like you have to be like
designers. At least these are the building
blocks of it. Like three cars will show up,
they will deal with them. Certain characters will like go
here and there. Then other, the main guy will
show up with Prabhas. And this would happen.
(16:40):
Could be random or like there's no consistency to the number of
villains in any. Area it's fully like insane
because and and this time they can't even complain about oh,
but India maybe we can't really afford, you know, like Hollywood
and keep us the PESA about the tumble Jaja, like expensive
Indian film of all time. You that is like a PR move,
right. So like I don't see it on
screen. I mean I so there are a couple
(17:01):
of shots that are admittedly done well, you know, especially
at the Lai Chagrawala battle stuff at the end.
Credit where it's due, but like the rest of it is just garbage
sheet garbage, Yeah. The problem is like the rest of
it is 98% of. The movie yeah the rest of it is
98% it looks like PS2 level of like even establishing shot of
(17:22):
car she have like 8 second with a photo he it was still.
Here that's the and the problem is it's not like you know key.
Director knows key. No, first priority is movie and
2nd priority is the people. Will buy it, people will buy a
matte painting in. Styles like he will show you
like random established shorts which have no value.
I'm like why am I still in this short?
Take me to the next they like no, we will show you five more
(17:44):
seconds on this. Like why?
It's like how people complained about Deadpool that why do all
the place knock? Oh my God it looks so terrible.
Like visually, like have you seen Kaliki?
That looks like wow, like genius.
Yeah, that looks like he have the most beautiful like scenery
ever. Have you seen Kalki?
All the desert sequences and like the random like vehicles
(18:07):
and like discarded like machinery and like a statue of a
guy with a hand or cord and. I think it's like they'll show
you these like all these like things you just mentioned, all
these vehicles and stuff and they look like full pristine.
There will not be like one layerof like dirt on the eye and
they've been driving through like desert for the last one
hour. Are in my car if you if you
drive it in like Delhi for like one day, it looks dirtier than
(18:29):
any of these post apocalyptic vehicles.
And people's faces. Why does everyone's faces look
like they just stepped out of a trailer?
Like, why can't they put, you know, like, dirt on them?
Like how everyone looks like pristine music video.
(18:49):
So effort Mr. Bachchan although man hours that we had Baki we
just. He was the only guy willing to
like, look realistic Baki. Touch up party.
I was like, no, no, this is likeone.
Of those irredeemable and crappylike movies where I'm like Oh my
(19:10):
God, three hours of my life gone.
And then it's celebrated like asthe biggest movie of like this
year from India. I'm just like what is wrong with
the audiences? I will like rewarding this.
Yeah, I reward Ektomatlam. Forget people complain like
people should be like up and about oh, we just got scammed.
We we paid for a movie, but we got like 1/3 of a movie, you
(19:30):
know? And it's not like.
I'm guessing a lot of people paid for the movie in IMAX.
Like they should complain a lot.Yeah, yeah.
So we paid for 1/3 of an ugly movie in IMAX.
But so any like rational person you would watch and be like oh
but eight second, this movie doesn't end, it just abruptly
stops. There is no climax.
What the hell just happened? Who is this person?
All those questions like. People could have seen two
(19:52):
weeks. I'm not sure whether the
released in the theatre. I think around two to three
weeks before this movie should have been theatres.
There's a movie which is called Puppies for All called Furious
which people would have spent money on and watched.
No and. It would be like 100 X better
but people watch this. Which is the sad reality.
So I think that'll be that's themovies like these just prove how
(20:12):
MDP embedded India star system is like people just go for like
oh, now may I Prabhas, Amitabh Bachchan, we are showing up.
What I'm surprised about, though, is that people have been
doing that for decades, right? But people have also
occasionally been calling or like, for instance, a lot of
movies starring Prabhas himself.Recently people have abandoned.
That wasn't the case here. People like this movie.
(20:33):
Right. They went back to it like.
Yeah, which is the surprising part also.
So Radhi Shyam didn't work for you, Adi Push didn't work for
you, but for what reason has Alki worked for you just as bad?
Amazing self like self indulgent, like other talent of
team people are like, Oh my God,Quentin, like please, you need
to kind of rein it and, you know, get a producer.
Yeah. People have the same complaint
(20:54):
about Oppenheimer. Like amazing movie, but people
still like you still have peoplecomplaining of like, that's just
too long. You have to find a way to trim
it down. And look at this just casually.
Yeah, with. Like it's like delivering
casually like like I'm like how first it's like just end game on
three yard length. You know, they took like one
decade to earn a three yard length.
These are like our first instalments right across three.
(21:15):
I'm like, what would you make 10years from now?
Like just obvious, like deleted scenes scattered throughout.
It's not like oh, but like I understand why it's three hours
long because you can't really. Everything contributes to the
story. No, this is like 1,000,000 thing
that you can just remove. Exactly.
There's so many scenes with likeand it's like landlord and I'm
just like, why do these exist? Why does this character exist?
(21:37):
Like this is completely irredeemable and I don't think
I'm interested in watching any any other follow up to this
cinematic universe. Yeah, please.
Like, please, just like. But the problem is like people
are worried, so we're getting atleast minimum one I'm guessing.
Sure, whatever. But my thing is that, you know,
I'll try anything once, but thenif it's this bad, then I'm not
going back for a second. I think that is the resolution
(21:57):
that we we should make this yearlike and not again, right?
We can't just yeah. So if you give us like another
movie, sure, we'll try it. But other than no thank you.
Right, I'm doing that. Yep.
That's all for this episode of the Optic.
You can follow us on Facebook Threads, Instagram and YouTube.
The Opticpot. You can write to us at the
(22:18):
opticpot@gmail.com. Please leave us a rating and a
review episode and we will see you next week.
Thanks for listening.
Hi I'm. And I'm Rohana welcome.
To the long take. This week we're discussing the
biggest Indian movie out this year, apparently called Heat
289080, with stars Prabhas and Kamal Hassan, if you can
recognize him, Deepika Padukone and a bunch of other people who
show up for like 2 minutes here there.
It's certain like the year, as the title you can says.
(00:36):
And it's like a sci-fi, cyberpunk, romantic drama,
comedy. I know Walters, it's everything
in one. But somehow still can't do the
basics, which is like what? Construct a scene sometimes on
what is happening. Yeah.
It's everything except good. It's everything and nothing.
Yeah, it's I was kind of shockedat how bad this was because I
(00:57):
mean, not for any other reason, but like no, it didn't feel like
the discourse around it was angry, right?
Like it didn't, I didn't, it didn't like seep through to me,
but not. Who was that guy who made that
Ram movie or whatever like with some?
What's wrong? Adi Purush?
Yeah. Yeah.
Was he the same guy? Yeah.
That was like was actively angered people, right?
(01:20):
That would actively angered people, but not because it was a
bad movie. It was mainly like just
religious folks were like actually dialogue this.
Oh yeah, yeah, it wasn't like what the.
Thinking of it right because I saw like 2 1/2 minutes of it.
I was like, did they make it in like I like Windows movie Maker?
Yeah, no. So that movie was mainly like,
how could you, like, mess with the Ramayan, right.
(01:40):
Why do you have, like, death heaters in it?
All that stuff, You know, it's just like creative choices.
Sure. It's.
I didn't really get a sense of how bad this was going to be,
even though we've been prepared for years now on what to expect
from these people about like, yeah, so.
They fooled me because, you know, like coming into it effect
most earned of this year, like critics also like, you know,
(02:02):
like I think has a good enough rating on ultimates or whatever.
I was like maybe it's like even from like even global critics.
I'm like, yeah, this is like maximalistic mathematics.
I'm like OK. Like, sure, yeah, I was
expecting like, sure, like RRR we didn't like, but sure, I can
understand why people like fine,whatever, but it's it's this
barely even qualifies as a movie.
Exactly, not so much of it. Like you know that.
(02:23):
That's why I brought up the scene construction thing.
I was like, how can they not even understand that?
You know, like certain shot has to follow a certain shot, right?
This is like basic building blocks of film making, right?
Like this, you do the shot, thishas to be the next shot and then
you can do the third shot, the fourth shot.
But this movie just like does first shot and then fourth shot.
I'm like beach, you know? People just go from A to B
without like any idea of ye kaise Hua and suddenly we are in
(02:46):
like a comedy now but last sceneto drama tha and romance star
but oski Pele wala to matlab dystopian thriller.
How have we reached in the span of three minutes to like broad
comedy where the person has likewhipping while beating people
up? Why is he beating people up?
You know who is his sidekick? Why does he have three
sidekicks? How did he get here?
(03:06):
Why did he betray his adopted guardian?
That's not explained. It's it's just a series of like
baffling head scratching decisions.
Like it's a storytelling wise. So it's a mess.
Yeah, I like eventually you findout like two hours and like,
wait, why is this even the protagonist, right?
Because it's not like he has a purpose in the story for like 2
hours. It's just like bumbling around.
(03:26):
He's like, oh I need money, I can't survive, I need money, I
can't survive. And then he just like, is there
more to your story at this point?
It's kind of shocking, right? Because the movie is 3 hours
long and it's, you're right, there is no protagonist, right?
It's not that Prabhas is not theprotagonist.
He's not, but it's not like Bakidolog hair and we've been sold
the movie as Oprah has key movie.
No, no, no, there is no protagonist in this film.
(03:47):
You know it's just it expects you to watch for three hours
with nothing to offer you got. There's no not a single version
that you can latch onto. Because it's like crazy like
like you, you're trying to like,you're not even saying he was
making a movie. You're like, I'm going to launch
for cinematic universe, which islike balls, but do the basics of
making a good movie first. I'd like at least like Marvel,
maybe whatever it is today, but they had the brains to be like
(04:09):
OK, let's just make a good movie.
Iron Man, if he make it good, maybe people will want more.
More even the worst Marvel movieand now we have complained, you
know, sequel beta. What I had is that the
shoehorning and 15 characters that would be seen in later this
thing, whatever, you know, even the worst Marvel movie to have
done that is still a movie. It's a bad movie, but it's a
(04:30):
movie. This one is half a movie.
It ends abruptly. It doesn't have a protagonist.
It expects you to just keep watching, and there's no
emotional payoff. Why?
Like why? Why is supposed to like relate?
What am I supposed to like, see their struggles, whatever
they're feeling, whatever, striving towards nothing.
There is like no one to like latch.
Onto right. In fact, on a human level, you
will probably latch onto DeepikaPadukone because it's very
(04:52):
obvious that she's being kind ofkept prisoner, going to be
experimented on bad things. We don't want bad things to
happen to a seemingly innocent person.
Though on a very basic level, you're like, I don't want, I
want her to escape, right? That's it.
With Amitabh Bachchan's character.
He's since he's the first personwe kind of beat in this film,
and he takes it upon himself to save Deepika Padukone.
(05:15):
Both those people I'm with on a relative scale.
Prabhas is actively the villain for because he's challenging
those two. He's challenging.
You you're trying to set this upguy as a protagonist.
You like do this like bounty on turn.
Like who like was living on the fringes, like copied from like
100 different horror movies. Like, yeah, he'll have a golden
part of gold or whatever eventually, but I'm just like,
(05:36):
he is actively against everyone else.
And I thought like and where he wakes up with the weapon he is
himself. No that just like he's someone
else and then he forgets that person in like 2 seconds.
And I'm like, oh, great, so you're always going to be
annoying. Yeah, yeah, yeah, no.
So I was briefly, I was like, OK, so I saw this coming,
obviously that he's going to have a change of heart.
But it's not even a change of heart, right?
(05:57):
It's not. He's not.
It's just breathe washing like that.
That weapon takes over his personality temporarily and then
that weapon leaves his hand. He's back to being himself.
I'm like great, going to deal with this.
Looking great. So from however much we've been
told of him, it could have, it could just as easily be a
mistake, right? He just happened to be in the
weapons vicinity. It could have been anyone.
So the movie itself is not giving you enough to be like,
(06:20):
but there is more to this person, right?
Beyond like he's even to attracta weapon.
It's not even like Captain America attracts like the hammer
or whatever, you know, because you know, Captain America is a
nice person. Exactly.
You're only for like 9 or 10 movies by that point, right?
This guy's like he's like a Sun King around the entire time.
Just like lying around his car making like the saddest jokes
ever and lying on the ground andit was like, you think you are
(06:43):
star not, but you're so far fromStar.
Not even a parody of the Scatterat this point.
Yeah, I don't know where to begin.
That is, I mean, we've already begun, but like, let's like
focus on scenes and figure out what they were trying to do,
right? Obviously, there's a lot of
nonsense that can just be like edited out, especially for like
(07:03):
the first hour and a half. I feel like he was just like,
whatever. And there is a villain, but
there's also a henchman. Is is the henchman supposed to
be menacing? Not really because he's played
by like a dude who looks like anuncle that he would notice on
this. I was like, like the terrible
casting. How can you think that Sasoda
chatter? Aziz, he's going to play like
(07:23):
some like evil, like, you know, like you.
He's not Bill Sasod. It's not working.
I'm not feeling it. He he's not even playing Ektos
Kanam Manas. I'm not threatened by a dude
called Manas whatever, but like he's not even playing him
interestingly, right. It's not like, Oh, you look like
you look innocent, but then Anders say you're like this
(07:44):
frustrated middle manager, right?
Like I can't do anything. But it's like that person from
Deadpool and Wolverine, right, Tom?
But it's not even that. He's just like a dude.
She's there are no layers to hisYeah, I.
Thought like he has some like bigger picture plan that you
know, I will usurp the supreme eventually.
No, that is some the other guy'splan, like who just died.
He's not even like subservient to a believable degree.
(08:07):
Like, it doesn't even feel like,oh, but I will do anything for
like, whatever the Andy Serkis looking.
Yeah. Last Jedi.
Basically, but. I'm not believing a single
person in this movie like Deepika Padukone is like is like
a damsel in distress and like it's not like, oh, but we'll
subvert expected. No, she is literally a damsel in
(08:27):
she needs to be rescued by not one, not two, but three people.
And then you have the audacity to frame her as Khaleesi without
like it's just empty kind of iconography, right?
Because. Which is basically the tagline
of the movie MDI. Kuch Kyani helps me, you know,
she it's not very difficult to be like, oh, but we'll write
(08:49):
you. We'll, we'll make this character
a little stronger than, you know, Nope.
Anybody. Because who doesn't really care
about female character, right? Because Particle is the most
like with the screen time. But as users noted, she's
entirely useless, and the other two are like treated even worse,
like they appear like. 5 minutesand now Ben shows for like to
make jokes and die huh? Which I was even thinking, I was
(09:10):
thinking like in terms of like, say billing like Disha Patani
and like, we're not talking about this movie.
Why are they in this movie? Why did they sign up?
Yeah, I guess paycheck maybe. What paycheck did they get for 5
minutes? Much love.
I don't know. Nearly.
He was convincing enough becausetheir roles are like so bad.
Like what? The characters don't need to
exist. It's not like Roxy shows up at
(09:30):
the end and, you know, play somepart in the finale.
No, he just disappears from the movie Acha.
So now my interesting that you mentioned that Disha Partney
character because she appears inthe movie as if acha in Kapo
history which fine you know I'llbuy that.
But then suddenly that is the moment where Prabhas chooses to
declare that uska pura objectivein life is to get to that.
(09:52):
Complex. Complex, right?
And there is no other like motivation to his character.
He's just like which is a complex Jana hai.
There is. Two hours, he's just like
complex, complex, complex even actually where two hours even
three are these complex complex?It's not.
And then fine, they somehow and she's like, fine, I'll take you
(10:15):
with me. And that happens very easily for
some reason. If it was that easy, why isn't
everybody doing it in? The complex, yeah.
Yeah, if everybody can just go to the complex, why isn't
everybody is going to the complex?
Because it didn't, it didn't feel like it was difficult for
Prabhas to go. And that was his major objective
in life, the one and only objective in life.
Karni yatuni, bro, You managed to get to the complex and then
Vahba Jakiru danced. Yeah, What?
(10:36):
It's just. It feels like the entire movie's
purpose was like written by the producer.
He's like hum complex Mein naj gana ka scene setup karna.
It's not like you get to the complex and suddenly you're hit
by Oh, but it was all a lie, right?
It's. Something, you know, it's
something because it was something, right, that she
reaches and you're like, Oh my God, this is a tragedy.
(10:57):
Yeah, exactly. So there is no like interesting
sci-fi concepts also came out ofeven the privileged people are
living under the thumb of whatever supreme ruler Yaskin,
right? There is no like complex ideas
at play here. No, literally, which is how I
guess poor people imagine rich people to be.
Like how the party got the Protect, Yeah, that is like.
(11:20):
A party, every shot made. Like literally, Deepika Barani
showed up in one shot. He takes her off the boat, she's
wearing white. They step into the party, Khan
car. She's wearing like some golden
thing. I'm like.
When did this happen even? He's dressed like in a trench
coat or something. Yeah, it's.
Like that in the middle of a shot while changing the costume.
Like but where you came from, like the poverty you came from
that you know, like other. You just get a slum with like
(11:43):
your uniforms and suddenly you have like access to like a walk
in wardrobe now. Which raises so many questions.
If you have access to like if you can just reach the complex,
if you have access to clothes, if you can just get crash a
party without being stopped, is the complex really that elusive
or whatever? Or is it just like anybody can?
It's just so stupid. So, I mean, every scene you can
(12:05):
just pick a part like this. Yeah.
Yeah. But suddenly, like Tota comes
and tells, like fortune teller Tota comes.
You know, forgot that existed. Yeah, yeah.
And the exact moment where Prabhas is sitting and being
like, I will go to the complex one day and then this fortune to
the tota comes mechanical. There's no interesting like the
the creature designs are like boring.
(12:25):
There's no like visual inventiveness.
The. World building is so boring,
right? Because in the initially when
they start setting up this worldand they go from mob and start
to like €6000, I'm like, OK, something promising.
And I put Hoga. They show you like Kashi.
Is this like, you know, dystopian city, like first and
last city. I'm like, OK, it's going to be
like, you know, something dirty,grimy.
Like I'd see like people like with their, I'm thinking like a
rogue one, like Jeddah, you know, no.
(12:47):
And then I get like an empty town, ghost town.
There's no one else except thesepeople.
But even like you mentioned, Rogue One, like the Jeddah,
right, It's very clearly modelled on like a Middle
Eastern city, which has its own internal like religious order
and stuff, right? Yeah.
What is? It's literally Kashi.
Isn't it supposed to be like like somewhat associated with
some religion? I'm saying you don't even have
(13:09):
to be like hi to Hinduism, what?Give me something.
No, how has how has the religionevolved in like 1000 years?
You know, do people even believein it anymore?
Or is it just like complex? Is God now What has happened?
Why set it in? Have people forgotten the idea
of gods? Nobody raises those questions,
right? And this is inspired by I.
Think there's no one exists to raise those questions?
(13:30):
The world is like so empty, likewhen the chase sequences are
happening, it's just the people who are being chased and the
people who are chasing them. There are no citizens in the
city. The problem is that if you if
you were to shave off like an hour of the first half, right,
and the second act is that Shambhala stuff, and then you
organically move into a third act, that's a movie.
Yeah, but right now we have the advent of nothing.
(13:51):
We have one hour of build up which just ends.
In the middle of it, let's just feed them literally like this
card the Avishmi. It literally feels like card
here. Like they shot it, but we can't
show it to you because we decided it's part.
It's just part for no other reason.
Because yeah. It's like new or not like how we
just decided to endure. Which is why I was so annoyed
by. Also, what should we I can't
(14:13):
compare? It is that, I mean, yeah,
obviously this is that's the problem, right?
Because we discussed that this is not even a movie.
Like if you don't know how to build or see what shots are what
sort of like basic, like our wayto place the camera, how to
frame this, we had to edit like wait to cut.
If he's in a music video sometime, like he's doing things
to his car and I'm like, can youplay?
Did this give me this established shot, Then you give
(14:35):
me a wide shot, then you give mea close up, then you give me
again a wide shot. I'm like, wait, what just
happened? No, but we've watched that.
No, no, I think that people justliterally too terrified to shoot
him in a way that isn't already done before.
I can't understand also how he'sOK by getting mocked so badly,
(14:56):
right? Because he has to know, right?
His entry scene is the first scene imaginable.
I'm not sure. Or does he not?
If he knew it wouldn't be this, it would be something else
which. He shows up like in the worst
scene possible. I'm just like, you realize we're
laughing at you, We're not laughing with you, right?
No, I don't think that's happening.
If for even a second he felt like he was being marked, that
(15:17):
scene would not exist. They keep mentioning like a
rebel fans rebel Hairy, which isall like, Oh yeah.
It's can't stand it like this. The the I was like, don't, don't
do meta dialogue with me. Like your scene is so garbage
right now. Like I'm like, OK, and I why is
he even there? People are standing around like,
yeah, at that point, the movie is not about Bharava.
It's like about Prabhas. He's lying on the ground.
(15:37):
Everyone's a fan of the guy on the ground, not your character.
No, but then Rajamouli shows up and then.
Ramgopal Varma shows. Up Ram Kapali Varma shows up,
Rajamouli shows up and for no other reason is to be like drive
around like with him and be likemake Bahubali references and
then just drive away. Yeah, for what just happened.
(15:58):
Like who is this movie for? Are you making some like inside
joke references to like you showit to the Delta community?
Like how many? No, I got to my Dal Nabi hiraja
Moniko. Right, Daldo, nobody's stopping
you. But like, come up with a better
scene. Except like, oh, but he's
literally show horned in and then he leaves.
He has no purpose in that scene.They're literally in a car
chase. How did he find out?
(16:19):
Yeah. And, and the chase is so like
damn annoying. Like if you're gonna copy from a
movie, you have to like live up to at least like 20% of it,
right? Like you have to be like
designers. At least these are the building
blocks of it. Like three cars will show up,
they will deal with them. Certain characters will like go
here and there. Then other, the main guy will
show up with Prabhas. And this would happen.
(16:40):
Could be random or like there's no consistency to the number of
villains in any. Area it's fully like insane
because and and this time they can't even complain about oh,
but India maybe we can't really afford, you know, like Hollywood
and keep us the PESA about the tumble Jaja, like expensive
Indian film of all time. You that is like a PR move,
right. So like I don't see it on
screen. I mean I so there are a couple
(17:01):
of shots that are admittedly done well, you know, especially
at the Lai Chagrawala battle stuff at the end.
Credit where it's due, but like the rest of it is just garbage
sheet garbage, Yeah. The problem is like the rest of
it is 98% of. The movie yeah the rest of it is
98% it looks like PS2 level of like even establishing shot of
(17:22):
car she have like 8 second with a photo he it was still.
Here that's the and the problem is it's not like you know key.
Director knows key. No, first priority is movie and
2nd priority is the people. Will buy it, people will buy a
matte painting in. Styles like he will show you
like random established shorts which have no value.
I'm like why am I still in this short?
Take me to the next they like no, we will show you five more
(17:44):
seconds on this. Like why?
It's like how people complained about Deadpool that why do all
the place knock? Oh my God it looks so terrible.
Like visually, like have you seen Kaliki?
That looks like wow, like genius.
Yeah, that looks like he have the most beautiful like scenery
ever. Have you seen Kalki?
All the desert sequences and like the random like vehicles
(18:07):
and like discarded like machinery and like a statue of a
guy with a hand or cord and. I think it's like they'll show
you these like all these like things you just mentioned, all
these vehicles and stuff and they look like full pristine.
There will not be like one layerof like dirt on the eye and
they've been driving through like desert for the last one
hour. Are in my car if you if you
drive it in like Delhi for like one day, it looks dirtier than
(18:29):
any of these post apocalyptic vehicles.
And people's faces. Why does everyone's faces look
like they just stepped out of a trailer?
Like, why can't they put, you know, like, dirt on them?
Like how everyone looks like pristine music video.
(18:49):
So effort Mr. Bachchan although man hours that we had Baki we
just. He was the only guy willing to
like, look realistic Baki. Touch up party.
I was like, no, no, this is likeone.
Of those irredeemable and crappylike movies where I'm like Oh my
(19:10):
God, three hours of my life gone.
And then it's celebrated like asthe biggest movie of like this
year from India. I'm just like what is wrong with
the audiences? I will like rewarding this.
Yeah, I reward Ektomatlam. Forget people complain like
people should be like up and about oh, we just got scammed.
We we paid for a movie, but we got like 1/3 of a movie, you
(19:30):
know? And it's not like.
I'm guessing a lot of people paid for the movie in IMAX.
Like they should complain a lot.Yeah, yeah.
So we paid for 1/3 of an ugly movie in IMAX.
But so any like rational person you would watch and be like oh
but eight second, this movie doesn't end, it just abruptly
stops. There is no climax.
What the hell just happened? Who is this person?
All those questions like. People could have seen two
(19:52):
weeks. I'm not sure whether the
released in the theatre. I think around two to three
weeks before this movie should have been theatres.
There's a movie which is called Puppies for All called Furious
which people would have spent money on and watched.
No and. It would be like 100 X better
but people watch this. Which is the sad reality.
So I think that'll be that's themovies like these just prove how
(20:12):
MDP embedded India star system is like people just go for like
oh, now may I Prabhas, Amitabh Bachchan, we are showing up.
What I'm surprised about, though, is that people have been
doing that for decades, right? But people have also
occasionally been calling or like, for instance, a lot of
movies starring Prabhas himself.Recently people have abandoned.
That wasn't the case here. People like this movie.
(20:33):
Right. They went back to it like.
Yeah, which is the surprising part also.
So Radhi Shyam didn't work for you, Adi Push didn't work for
you, but for what reason has Alki worked for you just as bad?
Amazing self like self indulgent, like other talent of
team people are like, Oh my God,Quentin, like please, you need
to kind of rein it and, you know, get a producer.
Yeah. People have the same complaint
(20:54):
about Oppenheimer. Like amazing movie, but people
still like you still have peoplecomplaining of like, that's just
too long. You have to find a way to trim
it down. And look at this just casually.
Yeah, with. Like it's like delivering
casually like like I'm like how first it's like just end game on
three yard length. You know, they took like one
decade to earn a three yard length.
These are like our first instalments right across three.
(21:15):
I'm like, what would you make 10years from now?
Like just obvious, like deleted scenes scattered throughout.
It's not like oh, but like I understand why it's three hours
long because you can't really. Everything contributes to the
story. No, this is like 1,000,000 thing
that you can just remove. Exactly.
There's so many scenes with likeand it's like landlord and I'm
just like, why do these exist? Why does this character exist?
(21:37):
Like this is completely irredeemable and I don't think
I'm interested in watching any any other follow up to this
cinematic universe. Yeah, please.
Like, please, just like. But the problem is like people
are worried, so we're getting atleast minimum one I'm guessing.
Sure, whatever. But my thing is that, you know,
I'll try anything once, but thenif it's this bad, then I'm not
going back for a second. I think that is the resolution
(21:57):
that we we should make this yearlike and not again, right?
We can't just yeah. So if you give us like another
movie, sure, we'll try it. But other than no thank you.
Right, I'm doing that. Yep.
That's all for this episode of the Optic.
You can follow us on Facebook Threads, Instagram and YouTube.
The Opticpot. You can write to us at the
(22:18):
opticpot@gmail.com. Please leave us a rating and a
review episode and we will see you next week.
Thanks for listening.
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